UNANSWERED PRAYERS

In the days leading up to the 2012 presidential election I was repeatedly asked my thoughts on the election. I stated numerous times that in my prayer time the message I got was that Barack 0bama could win re-election. However, I pointed out that while I could not prove it, I felt there were more people praying and fasting for this election than at any other time in the history of the country. I felt with all the people seeking the Lord that He could not fail to hear our cries and act.

After a few months of intense prayer and fasting I am glad to say that I have lost about 20 pounds and feel great, physically that is. However, I was disappointed and dismayed at the results of the election. I could stand to lose those pounds and intend to keep them off. Truth be known, I’d been trying hard with exercise to lose that weight, to no avail, and my purpose for fasting was certainly not to lose weight, but I’ll take the blessings as they come.

So what about all the prayer and fasting? Did God miss our prayers, or hear them and just ignore them. Were atheists and nonbelievers praying harder than the children of God (of course I say that facetiously). Since I wrote the first part in this series pointing out the extent that fraud was a factor in this election I have been bombarded with information on extensive fraud in many strategic places confirming what I said from sources much more sophisticated than anything I have available.

But what’s the encouragement in that? Didn’t God know ahead of time that there was going to be corruption and the effect it would have on the course of our nation? In fact, I was not alone in encouraging people to specifically pray against corruption and fraud which could affect the election. God is not surprised by anything, nor is he worried about anything. He cares for us and the situation we are in and the direction we are heading. Yet He has plans for us, to cause us to prosper regardless of what man’s plans are.

Jeremiah 29:11-13: “For I know the plans that I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”

God always hears our prayers, in fact He is aware of our needs before we ask (Matthew 6:8). His way of accomplishing what we ask are not always through the means or methods that we choose or envision.

Isaiah 55:8-9: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

I admit that I wanted a different outcome to the election, but that was not my end goal. I want our nation saved (Matt 25:33) and I want the republic restored. To be sure, I did not believe that was going to occur through this election. However I did believe a different outcome would buy us some more time before travail came upon the land. However, that was not to be. Had Romney been elected there are perhaps only a few major things which might have been different. First, I think Mitt Romney would be a problem solver, not a problem creator. He also has an understanding of business and economy so he most likely would have been able to navigate the national economy around some of the more dangerous ice burgs. However, the main issues regarding the debt, the currency and the economic war we are now waging would not have been solved by him alone. He also has the proven ability to work with others not of his own party and would have had a different attitude toward Israel, Russia, China and Iran. Lastly, I believe he would have chosen more originalist Supreme court justices than 0bama has chosen, and is likely to choose. Otherwise most of the issues would remain unchanged by whoever sits in the oval office.

My ultimate prayer continued to be through all my prayer and fasting, “Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.” And although I would love the president to have a line item veto like so many governors have, I always try to give God a line-item veto by imitating Jesus’ prayer “nevertheless not my will, but Yours, be done.” Certainly I wanted the cup we are about to drink to pass from us, but we are overcomers in Christ and we know there is nothing which He will allow us to face that He will not also give us the power to go through it, over it, under it or around it (1 Corinthians 10:13, Phil 4:13). There is no promise that victory will come easily, but we know it will come in Christ, so long as we are faithful and refuse to lose heart.

“You were tired out by the length of your road, Yet you did not say, ‘ It is hopeless.’ You found renewed strength, Therefore you did not faint.” Isaiah 57:10 NASU

Before the election I was listening to a pastor from Texas who is well known for his understanding of the nation of Israel in biblical prophecy. He was speaking about the election and all the churches and individuals who were involved in prayer and fasting. He said that if people pray and fast for forty days God will certainly hear, but if He chooses not to answer your prayers in the fashion you have requested or in the way you expected, you must know that it is because He has a broader view and what will come to pass will be in a greater plan. You will be strengthened for the days by your prayer and fasting.

I hope Garth Brooks won’t be offended if I borrow a line from one of his songs, “Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.” In reality there are no unanswered prayers, just some of the answers are different than our requests. According to Revelation 5:8 prayers are like incense in bowls, and according to chapter 8 it is only a matter of time before these prayers are returned to the earth by God’s actions, but in His own time and according to his plan.

“So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:11

We have been given a unique nation among the nations. Founded upon the principles of God’s Word, and an understanding that Government is created by, and should be subject to, the people and the people are created by, and should be subject to God. We are “one nation under God” and where we cease to be under God we cease to be blessed as a nation.

Our constitution is the document that makes us a nation, it is a unique document and has created a unique nation. Italians are Italians regardless of the government they have. Spanish are Spanish regardless of the government they have, it’s the same for the Chinese or the Germans. But America is made up of people from every nation under heaven. What makes us a nation is not our ethnicity, but our heritage and constitution.

“Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster and what has happened once in 6,000 years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world.” Daniel Webster

There are powers in the earth working through men who wish to bring anarchy as they know anarchy always prepares the way for tyranny. The unified United States has been the greatest road block to anarchy and therefore tyranny in the world for generations. Therefore there are powers and princes which want to see her authority removed. It was not without great sacrifice that our nation was birthed and it will not be without great sacrifice that she will be saved. “You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.” (Hebrews 12:4) Who knows but that our resolve will cause God to answer our prayers “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

It is clear that securing the constitution will not happen without a resolve to press forward, no matter the cost, no matter the effort, no matter the time that it takes. Our constitution has been neglected, maligned, ignored and attacked. Yet it can be revived. It is the singular governmental document which was written with human nature in mind – limiting the defects of human weaknesses guile and encouraging the strengths of human aspiration and goodness is its genius and strength. Understanding that power corrupts, and therefore limiting the unrestrained exercise of power. This is the reason it is maligned and hated by power mongers and brutes. It is the levee which protects our freedoms from such schemers.

Keep your resolve, never ever give up, in fact strengthen your resolve in knowing that the greater the challenge the greater the victory, with such a great promise, we will have great challenge.

Galatians 6:9-10: “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.”

On my wall I have a poem in a frame that was a gift from my church and students. They told me it reminded them of my ministry and service to others. I cherish that thought, the words are an encouragement to me, and perhaps they can encourage all of us.

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt

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